66 Europe and Central Asia Summary of Amnesty International’s Concerns in the Region, January – June 2007 Treatment of people with intellectual disabilities (update to AI Index: POL 10/001/2007 – Ireland) In its annual report for 2006, published in March, the Inspectorate of Mental Health Services found mental health provision to be ad hoc in nature, with “serious deficiencies in community mental health teams” around the country, “basic staffing” unavailable in children’s mental health services, and “no teams in mental health services for people with intellectual disability”. The Inspector concluded that inpatient units would “continue to be the first-line treatment locations”, long-stay wards “will not close”, and there would be “little or no access to alternatives to medication if community mental health and other multidisciplinary teams are not resourced”. The report also found: that there was a lack of information provided to services users about their diagnosis and treatment; that waiting lists for children’s services continued to be long, sometimes over a year; that there was an almost complete absence of in-patient facilities for people with intellectual disability with a mental disorder who require in-patient treatment; and that these patients were receiving treatment in units that were not approved under the Mental Health Act 2001, and that the patients were not protected by the Act. The Inspector highlighted the lack of therapeutic activities for inpatients, especially for patients within ‘long-stay wards’ but also in a number of acute units. The Inspector expressed particular concern at the number of vulnerable patients remaining in long-stay wards, living in unacceptable conditions in institutional environments that were drab, bare and in some cases, dirty, with no way of developing their interests or leisure pursuits, and sometimes locked into the wards. In many long-stay wards patients were observed by the inspectors to be “wandering around aimlessly or sitting motionless, and this is the pattern for these patients every day of the year, punctuated by the odd outing or Christmas party”. Amnesty International Women (update to AI Index: POL 10/001/2007 – Ireland) A National Women’s Strategy was published in April, outlining the Government’s commitments towards achieving women’s equality in the period 2007-2016. However, it lacked measurable targets and timescales, and also lacked specific quotas to encourage an increase in the representation of women in decision-making structures. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in the area of violence against women responded to the announcement, in April, of a new executive office within the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, known as COSC -- the Irish Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence -stating that they would not work with this office if it were established in its proposed form. Shortcomings they identified in this office included: it was limited to prevention of domestic violence, rather than protection and criminalisation all forms of violence against women; it did not provide for NGO involvement, and did not recognize the NGOs’ expertise in these areas; and it emphasised awareness-raising over law enforcement. Children (update to AI Index: POL 10/001/2007 – Ireland) Following the government’s consultation with key stakeholders in late 2006 to agree a wording for a Constitutional referendum on children’s rights, the Twenty-Eighth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2007 was published in February. While welcoming the proposal in the Bill to create a new, free-standing article in the Constitution entitled ‘children’, the Ombudsman for Children concluded that the proposed provisions appeared to represent a restricted application of the principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and did not meet the specific recommendations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, as set out in its Concluding Observations on Ireland’s Second Report, issued in September 2006. It noted that there was a limited application AI Index: EUR 01/010/2007